Archive for the ‘Final Project’ Category

Two of my interviewees named Daniel, one actually has the same name with Daniel Ng. ==”

[Daniel: Hi I am Daniel, your tour guide. Glad to meet all of you…]
As a tour guide of an exhibition in completely dark, Daniel’s job is to lead visitors to experience what it feels to be blind.
He began to lose his sight two years ago and became almost completely blind in three months because of brain tumor.[Daniel: Brain tumor, which hurt my nerve…If you wave….]
Brain tumor destroyed his sight for 95%
Tour guide is Daniel’s first job after he gradually lost his vision. He used to be an area manager of cellphone outlet in Hong Kong. After his vision loss, Daniel lost his job and barely can find an opportunity to work. Before he joined the exhibition, all he had is sorrow in the darkness.[Daniel: I think in oriental region, it is hard for blind people to find a job. Not all of , but many of employers set up their minds to assume you can not do anything without your vision. Their mind is very hard to ‘break’.]
As got visually impairment late in his life other than genetic, Daniel himself also thought it is impossible to live a life in darkness at first.[Daniel: How can I walk in the street with a stick? Will people help me?(street sound)][Daniel: First I don’t understand, than I assume this is impossible. This is the fault people who have never tried how it feels to be in a totally dark world. Actually, there are skills and facilities to help blind people out.]
What Daniel could do now, is to cross finger and hope for the future, one day that bio/chemical medicine could give his bright life back.

Went to HKSB( Hong Kong Society for the Blind) this morning. HKSB…what a name. 😀

Anyway, a little bit background about HKSB:

“Established in 1956, the Hong Kong Society for the Blind, (hereafter called the Society), is a government subvented voluntary agency dedicated to the well-being of the visually impaired people in Hong Kong. In the past years, the Society has been providing comprehensive services for the blind and visually impaired population. The Society provides eye care and low vision services, rehabilitation and career training, education support, employment consultation, adaptive technology, ICT applications, rehabilitation for multi-disabled persons and residential care for the visually impaired elderly.﻿﻿﻿﻿” (www.hksb.org.hk)

I visited HKSB with some pupils and found that Mr. Lee, who I met several days ago, was the tour guide. He was delighted when surrounded by children. I just felt awkward as those children stopped talking to me as soon as they found out I speak mandarin and cannot fully understand Cantonese…==”‘

Miss Jiang (who is visually impaired, but low vision didn’t disturb her life, only some difficulties in reading, so she has to put reading materials really close to her eyes) mainly introduced their library, which is my former unapproved topic for final project.

They have Thousands of braille books, both English and Chinese. But still, the audio books are more popular, as some member may not know braille, as they got blind late in their life.

HKSB even have braille e-books, but she didn’t show the e-books to us.

I went to DID yesterday. So many things I want to share about the interesting and inspiring exhibition, maybe I can make my DID tour into a series. 😀

First, a little bit background about DID and DID HK.

Dialogue In the Dark (DID) is a is an awareness raising exhibition. It is a social franchising company, offering exhibitions and business training in total darkness, creating jobs for the blind, disabled and disadvantaged worldwide.

First opened in 1988 and then spread worldwide, DID has been presented in 150 cities. In 2008, DID HK was founded.

It is said over six million visitors from more than 25 countries have experienced Dialogue in the Dark, giving over 6,000 blind people jobs.

DID HK was founded in 2008, it’s mission is to bridge the gap between disabled groups and the rest of society, to create jobs for the visually impaired, to raise awareness and tolerance in society towards disadvantaged groups.

This is my tour guide Daniel, he lost his sight two years ago and became almost completely blind twelve weeks ago because of brain tumor, which hurt his optical nerve which could not be repaired. Now he could only sense lights.

What he could do, is to cross finger and hope for the future, hope for the day that bio/chemical medicine could cure his “sorrow”.

Tour guide in DID is his first job after he lost all his vision, he used to be an area manager of cellphone outlet in Hong Kong.

After his vision loss, he never find an opportunity to work, until he joined DID.

He said it is hard for blind people to find a job in oriental region, like HK and Taiwan, even for those with good education. Some fresh graduate even can’t find a way to access job market and get an interview.

“Not all of , but many of employers set up their minds to assume you can not do anything without your vision. Their mind is very hard to ‘break’.”

As acquired blindness late in Daniel’s life other than inborn, Daniel said even he thought it is impossible to walk in the street with a stick.

Will people help me? How can I use a computer?How can I cook? How can I manage my daily work? These are questions full of his head at first. “Actually, there are skills and facilities to help blind people out.” He added.

“First I don’t understand, than I assume this is impossible. This is the fault people who have never tried how it feels to be in a totally dark world.

DID is a platform for visually impaired, but also the normal people, let them know more about our life.”

Daniel has young and nice voice, but he is actually over 40. He said age is never the barrier to make friends and he wants to “keep his mind younger” which makes him feel rejuvenated.

The term visual impairment covers a wide spectrum of different impairments, from totally blindness to color blindness, also including light sense blind, hand powered and index value blindness. It does not include those whose sight problems can be corrected by spectacles or contact lenses.

Hence if one is visually impaired, it does not necessarily mean one is totally blind and cannot see anything, but either blind or have impaired vision which might be improved.